The 4th City
by Josei No Akai
Summary: It's only the 850th year and Eren and his friends are undergoing their last year of training, unaware that a small yet more advanced city to the far west had been destroyed, leaving only two young survivors. Riding the winds east, leaving their dead city of sad memories behind, siblings Harely and Michael, unknowingly stumble into the hard lives of the Survey Corps.


The 4th City

Prologue

Year 844

It was just a normal day for the great city of Zeltoras. The Silvetts were soaring through the sky, going this way and that. Their passengers all seeming to have someplace of importance to get to. The metal contraptions gleamed in the sun as they sailed through the air at only 35 meters, passing the widely spaced buildings. But one silvett seemed to standout amongst the rest as it flew a bit higher then the others.

On this lone silvett was a young girl, her short brown hair whipping about her face as only half of it could be pulled back in a short ponytail. Her blue eyes gazed through the glass of her goggles at the tall wall in front of her. Her face behind the air mask grew confident as she shifted her weight back to aim the flying contraption up to the edge of the 70-meter wall.

I'm only at 45 meters, I need to gain about 30 to see the troops on the other side.' She thought to herself as she pulled further back, her hands tightened around the base sidebars and relaxed her stomached against the support strap. She could feel the hum of the propeller motor under her feet begin to fade gradually the higher she got. "Don't fade! Please don't fade!" She shouted out in vein, letting her face show her worry. She kept pushing higher and higher until she hit 65 meters and the whirling beneath her faded away and she began to glide straight toward the wall.

"SHIT!" She cried, leaning her weight sharply left to avoid the wall, barely just scraping the wing against the huge white stone. She began to descend ever so slowly, gliding gently across the wind. She sighed heavily as she spotted her garage and shifted her weight toward it, hoping that she had enough altitude to make it there without having to land in the streets.

The people below her parted as she came down from above crying "Make way! I can't land!"

As she landed softly just down the street from her house someone yelled out to her "Hey! What's the big deal! How come you can't make it to your own roof like everyone else?"

"Well I'm sorry my machine died on me! These things aren't always reliable you know!" She fought with the man as she folded the ends of the wings upward and lifted the worn machine above her head.

"Well it wouldn't die so often if you weren't pushing it to fly over the wall! No one is allowed out there anyway! Don't you know that those creatures are out there?" the man shouted with a gruff voice filled with annoyance. At the raising of his voice, the girl stood taller, raising her chin with a gleam in her eyes screaming 'there's no way your outsmarting me now old man'.

"Of course I know! And I'm not stupid enough to go over the wall, I just wanted to check for any signs of the troops!" She heard the horrified gasps and dark mutters of the people around her but she didn't care one bit. She huffed as shifted the weight above her and with that she took off down the street and turned left into her garage. She set her silvett down as she moved up the wooden stairs and onto the roof. She pulled the lever that lowered the wooden docking platform that was still raised, and as it was dropping she closed the shutters that covered the gaping hole it left.

As she moved back down the wooden staircase, closing the flat rooftop door as she moved down the stairs, she heard a voice from below the steps. "Harley please tell me you didn't try for the wall again?" Her mother spoke from the doorway.

Harley sighed, and not wanting to worry her poor mother said, "No mother, just a quick test run again. Let me finish cleaning up in here, and I'll wash up and help you with dinner." She called back as she hung her silvett on the wall opposite of the door leading inside, and began removing her coat, gloves, goggles, and mask.

The redheaded woman made an unconvinced face but didn't press her daughter more as she just gave a small huff and moved from the doorway to let the girl through to her bedroom so she could clean herself up. The young mother moved back into the kitchen as her youngest child sat at the table reading out of his book. The boy was only half his sisters' age, at 8 years old and yet he could probably read better then her.

"Michael, why don't you go wash up for supper?" She said over her shoulder as she began to pull her ingredients out from various compartments in the small kitchen, chop, and throw stuff in the already boiling pot in the fireplace. Harley soon joined her and soon the two had a well-cooked meal of beef stew, with bread set in the middle of the table.

"Mama, when will papa be home?" The young boy across from Harley asked softly, and the two women seemed to stop frozen. They exchanged glances and our young heroine replied softly.

"Now Michael, you know he'll be back when the rest of the brave troops come back from over the walls." Their father had been gone for almost two months now and did not show signs of returning soon. Their mother showed hope of his returning, the youngest was oblivious to what was happening, but Harley knew… she knew what the chances of him coming back now were, and as sad as it made her, she knew she had to be strong for her family like he would want her to be.

"But why? What's so important that's over the walls that's more important then us?" The small boy asked in confusion, he had no idea of the monsters outside the walls that were waiting to eat them.

Harley paused for a moment biting her lip a bit before answering with, "Well, you know how brave papa is, right?" She received a nod, "And how strong papa is?" Another nod, "Well papa was asked to lead all the other brave and strong men to defeat the evil monsters outside the walls. And of course papa had to go! Because if he didn't, then who would?" She explained as if it were common sense, and finished with, "Now finish your dinner," then continued eating her own food.

When she was done she waited for her mother and sibling to finish as well before taking the bowls and washing them in the water her brother brought in for dinner from the pump. As soon as that was finished she moved back into the garage to finally begin working on the old Silvett her father had left her.

She was only half way through taking the engine apart and fixing small things when she heard a small knock on the rotting doorframe to the garage behind her. She turned, not taking her hands off of the wrench as she pushed to loosen the bolt holding the propeller in place, to see a small boy with dark red hair standing there holding a wooden cup of most likely water in his small hands, trying (almost to hard) not to spill it. "Well, hey there bud!" she said with a smile, almost falling forward as the bolt under her came loose. The boy began to move toward her with the cup and sat down next to his sister waiting for to get done unscrewing the small bolt before giving her the cup. She wiped her brow with the rag sitting next to her, taking the old cup from the boy and wiping his face playfully with her now sweat covered rag. Michael jumped up crying about how gross she was, as the brunette continued to ignore him while sipping at the water thirstily. "Shouldn't you be in bed already? It's getting late kid," she spoke softly, glancing at the now dark window.

Michael calmed down a bit, still whipping his face in his shirt as if he was trying to remove some horrible disease from his face, and replied equally as soft through the thin material, "Mom went to bed early and I wanted to help you with the silvett. Plus it's not even that late yet!"

Harley gave a soft sigh as worry for her depressed mother set in, but she didn't fight back against the small boy as she told him to grab her another wrench from one of the work benches. The boy obeyed the command and moved quickly to fulfill his mission. They worked late into the night, paying attention to, and cleaning everything, down to the smallest details until they had the engine completely clean, and rebuilt. They were about to put the rest of the silvett back together, until a loud ringing set through the town. The pair froze, as the alarm continued, until the boy looked up, mouth open to ask about the loud bells. But his sister interrupted him, "Wait here Michael," she said, her calm voice barely audible over the growing chatter of angry and confused neighbors.

Harley ran up to the roof, looking around the edges of the walls for any signs of trouble until a flaming blimp came into view. She stood the awed as she noticed an actual titan climbing along the back tail end, drop into the city and begin moving toward the gates. Harley realized what the monster was going to do, and quickly ran down the stairs yelling "Don't ask questions just wake mom and get her in here fast!" as she began to replace the air tanks and assemble the engine cover and wings as fast as she could. As an after thought she then attached the attack blades, her father had left, to the landing legs and turning them in so they didn't chip or grow dull. Finishing in record time, her mother came in confused as to what was going on, until she heard the loud explosion of what Harley could only assume was the stone gaits collapsing. Harley ran inside the house grabbing her pack and a few loafs of bread and some cheese. She quickly ran back out to the garage yelling at her family to put on their coats, goggles and gloves as she slipped her own on. She knew they weren't safe, as she could already hear the screaming from the houses in the front district. Her mother was yelling, asking her what was going on as her daughter ushered the small family to the roof, while loading the silvett into the raising dock.

The girl franticly ran up the stairs, pulling the lever and removing the shudders that blocked the silvetts path. Her mother and sibling were to petrified, staring at the beasts slowly making their way from the gates in the front district to the back of the city. "Hey!" she screamed, grabbing their attention. She grabbed her brother and practically threw him down in the base of the silvett, just under the support strap. "Listen, just hold onto the front of the frame, just like this, ok?" she explained softly to not scare the boy more then he already was, as she turned back to her mother.

"Baby you need to go on with out me. Ok?" her mother said calmly.

"Hell no! Get on the silvett!" She shouted back.

"Harley baby, don't fight with your mother." She spoke again, just as quietly.

"Mama, I am not leaving you here!" the girl fought back. If they were going to escape, it would be as a family.

"Harley!" now that caught her attention. "How would we all fit on that tiny pile of shit and still get over the wall?" her normally calm and quiet mother was starting to get desperate.

The teen stood in shock and realization. She stood for a moment longer trying to think until the older woman spoke again. "Listen, I'll try to find my own way out and catch up to you, but for now, you and your brother need to get out of here and try to find some place safe… Please… Just go…" their mother pleaded softly, and Harley immediately hugged her tight, then made a dash to the silvett. She dropped the folded up wings and locked them into place, flipping the motors switch on the side to start the motor, while moving her feet into the foot cubbies so they didn't slip.

"Don't you dare die damnit!" she called back as the motor flung them off the roof and into the air. "Hold on down there little man. Just be brave and keep your eyes closed for me ok? Let big sissy take care of you," she shouted through her mask to the boy below her. She leaned her weight further back as her friends and neighbors silvetts began dropping at 50-meters up, some getting caught by jumping titans before then. She held her breath approaching 65-meters again. The engine began to fade again, and the boy could feel it.

Michael gasped behind his mask; calling "Were not going to make it!" he yelled over the screaming bellow them.

"Oh yes we will!" the elder called back to the boy bellow. They were almost to the wall furthest from their house now, and barely hitting only 70-meters. They had reached wall height but it took a lot of power to get there and that didn't mean that they had a clear shot over the wall yet, but she kept pushing, praying to any deity that was out there to help them over.

Someone must have heard her as she pulled up just barely scraping the top stones with the dull side edge of the attack blades. She let her breath go, and breathed the sweat air that told her they had at least another night to live through. She took a sharp nosedive, dropping 10-meters to power the motors up after pushing and pushing so hard. They continued to fly for a while before she shut the engine off, and let them glide on the dark winds of the night, with only the moon guiding their way. She looked back to see that only one of the emergency escape blimps had made it up from the burning city so far, probably not carrying to may people. And as she looked harder, she still couldn't see any silvetts that could have made it through the gates, or over the walls.

She was broken from her thoughts as she heard a voice from bellow her call out. "Hey! Did we make it? Can I open my eyes?" the young one asked, lying against the main frame, face buried between his raised arms, holding onto the front edges of the machine for dear life like he had been told to. She smiled softly, shouting a quick yes, and telling the boy not to look back, only look ahead.

"And don't be afraid if you see any monsters bellow us ok? Those big bad guys can't get us from way up here." She called down, while checking the ground bellow for any more titans. She only spotted at least five more, of various sizes, slowly moving toward her home city to join in their friends in feasting on her friends and neighbors. Sighing she knew it would be a long flight, and thankfully her brother seemed to understand her distress and stayed quite, just watching as the gently winds carried them east, as his sister switched the machine on and off, adjusting the altitude according to the wind, as her dad had taught her to do. But Harley felt like crying. Like just curling up somewhere and crying herself to sleep. But she couldn't do that just now, as she still had someone to be brave for, meaning she had to suck it up and keep flying to protect what was likely the last of her family left.

And so, Harley took a deep breath, calming herself as she concentrated her focus on the winds and soon to be brightening horizon.

* * *

**So hey there! **

**I know, I'm trying again? I'm pretty persistant.**

**Dont worry guys, I'll make you a deal this time. As soon as this gets posted, I'm gonna start writing the actual chapters. And if this gets enough popularity that i deem this story worth posting, then I'll post all the chapters, even if all I can do is get half way through this one and run out of writing juice for it. I'll even schetch out the Silvett from different agnles, inside the engine, and the entire flying consule and post it on DA and link it up to my FF account page!**

**So tell your friends, your family, your pets, your furniture, everyone!**

**Later loves ^_~**

**Lady Red**


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